The menu winner: Soup bowls you tilt, muttering “Wow, good,” while spooning up the last of the kabocha squash with tart, bursting quince and nutty sunchokes. Seared wagyu strip loin you lament eating the last refined Japan-bred cube of. The Sky Room may feel like a cruise-ship dining room shrunk to 10 tableclothed tables, but there’s a lot to be said about the food aesthetics at this old hotel.

Why it rates: There’s an artist in the kitchen. Since Luke Johnson became the Sky Room’s chef de cuisine, when the 10th-floor restaurant was reintroduced in July, the reinvented small-portions menu offers seven courses, dictated by the chef’s whims alone. It’s creative. It’s not a steal. But at $95 per person, it’s premium ingredients served raw or put through some technique Johnson picked up at national leaders Alinea or Mélisse. Look, you can gnaw on a steak anywhere: The unique experience here is like visiting a small, well-funded art gallery with an unusual collection.